Moscow concerned over new US sanctions against Venezuela

March 13 2015

TASS

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday expressed concern about Washington stepping up political and sanctions pressure on Caracas, saying these "negative trends" destabilised the situation in Venezuela and were discordant with positions of other countries.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday expressed concern about Washington stepping up political and sanctions pressure on Caracas, saying these "negative trends" destabilised the situation in Venezuela and were discordant with positions of other countries.

"We note with concern growing negative trends destabilising the situation in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, with which Russia maintains close ties of friendship and strategic partnership," the ministry said in a statement, adding that those developments "threatened democratic stability of that country and could have serious consequences for the general situation in Latin America".

"Washington’s aggressive build-up of political and sanctions pressure on Caracas - to the extent of declaring the domestic political situation in Venezuela ‘an extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States’ - is openly discordant with the positions of many other members of the international community, who call for a constructive solution to Venezuela's internal problems," the ministry added.